Rethinking ‘Intercommunity Conflict’ in Central Mali

This article re-examines the notion of “intercommunity conflict”, commonly used to characterize recent confrontations (from 2015 onwards) between armed men/groups from Fulani and Dogon communities in central Mali, particularly in the Mopti and Bandiagara regions. The violence arising from these tensions easily lends itself to facile oppositions between Dogon victims and Fulani executioners, or vice versa, giving thus the impression that ethnic groups are substantial entities to which common interests can be attributed. Yet there is ample evidence of collaboration between Dogons and “Fulani jihadists”, even though they are supposed to be antagonists, calling into question the misleading intercommunity characterization of the conflict. The transformation of the conflict tends to show that ethnicity actually matters less than the interests that individuals or groups, even supposed opponents, can obtain from each other. The article is based on sixty individual interviews conducted during multiple field missions in Ténenkou, Mopti, and Bandiagara during 2023 and 2024.